WHATSAPP NOW REACHES 700 MILLION PEOPLE

“Today, we are thrilled to share that WhatsApp has more than 700 million monthly active users,” co-founder Jan Koum wrote in a Facebook post.

WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum—and acquired by Facebook last February for $22 billion.

So, today’s announcement on Facebook was a fitting forum to disseminate the message of their latest milestone.

WhatsApp is one of the many apps Facebook owns. Last March an article by Pocket-lint.com noted that Facebook has acquired over 50 apps since 2005. The list includes well-known apps such as Instagram, and lesser-known apps such as Drop.io, a file sharing company that was acquired by Facebook in what has been deemed an acquire-for-hire transaction. Facebook hasn’t stopped acquiring start-ups; just yesterday Facebook acquired the speech recognition start-up company Wit.AI.

With all of these different communication apps under its umbrella, Facebook seemingly has all the tools to control the social media communications world. However, with all of the different communication options in the market, it’s virtually impossible for one outlet to control the world of digital conversations.

Even as Facebook’s apps continue to grow, smartphone users continue to use a variety of messaging apps. In this Wired piece from 2014, it’s noted that a smartphone can tie all these messaging apps together via the notifications screen. Being able to go from Facebook to Twitter and back to Instagram seamlessly lowers the cost of switching between them all.

Even with all of the options, WhatsApp is at the top of the user list.

Today, WhatsApp users will send over 30 billion messages, “which equates to more than four messages each day for every single human on the planet,” as reported by TechSpot.Com. And that number is growing.